I'm a male/20 years old. I never weight lifted before. My squat and deadlift are stuck at 160 lbs and my bench is at 100. I've been stuck at this weight for awhile.. I was making good progress up until I hit this weight and I can't seem to get any higher. I tried pushing it and I nearly injured myself. My body weight is stuck at 145 (I'm 5'11). I can eat nearly 4000 calories and still not gain any weight and it's really frustrating (around 40% carb, 30% fat, 30% protein, vegan - I don't thrive on 80/10/10 or any high carb). Any idea what I might be doing wrong??

Man that sounds just like me, except I'm older.I've hit a plateau at around 80kg back squat, 40kg press and 110kg deadlift and just cannot seem to get beyond it, in fact I feel like I'm losing strength since going vegan! I hope people can advise you through this, I'll be very interested to know if you combat it successfully.

how often do you lift weights? are you overtraining? perhaps you need more time between training days for recovery/rebuilding the muscle.

I'm training 3 times a week. I take a week off after a month.

AndiMorris wrote:

Man that sounds just like me, except I'm older.I've hit a plateau at around 80kg back squat, 40kg press and 110kg deadlift and just cannot seem to get beyond it, in fact I feel like I'm losing strength since going vegan! I hope people can advise you through this, I'll be very interested to know if you combat it successfully.

I'm a male/20 years old. I never weight lifted before. My squat and deadlift are stuck at 160 lbs and my bench is at 100. I've been stuck at this weight for awhile.. I was making good progress up until I hit this weight and I can't seem to get any higher. I tried pushing it and I nearly injured myself. My body weight is stuck at 145 (I'm 5'11). I can eat nearly 4000 calories and still not gain any weight and it's really frustrating (around 40% carb, 30% fat, 30% protein, vegan - I don't thrive on 80/10/10 or any high carb). Any idea what I might be doing wrong??

WHat type of program are you using? Stronglifts 5x5? and are you taking a full rest week each month or deloading?

WHat are you doing outside the program, activity wise? How accurate do you think your calorie count is? 4,000 cals a day for no weight gain is suspicious. Either you are miscalculating or I would consider a medical check if I were you. 4,000 cals at your size just doesn't sound right.

How do you think your form is on lifts, newbies can limit gains by failing to learn proper form. With really good form you should be able to push to near failure without injury.

And have you tried baby plating?

Edit: Oh and seriously strength and muscle building is a long process. It takes time, you've only been at three months be patient. How long have you been "plateaued"?

I followed stronglifts 5x5 and then mad cow 5x5 and got my squat up to 300 ibs x 5, dead lift up to 395x5, and my bench press to 245x5 in just a little over a year. And I had to do stuff to fix my squat several times during that year. So maybe it's a biomechanics issue, maybe you just aren't putting the right types of fuel in your body. Maybe you just need to deload like the SL5x5 program recommends.You don't really know though what kind of diet you thrive on in terms of training if those are your lifts. I don't say that to be mean or anything, but you just haven't put your body under enough stress to make the kind of demands that will make you play with your diet that way. I'm not saying you have to follow 80/10/10, but if you are training hard enough to really elicit muscular growth and strength increases then you'll need to increase your body's glycogen levels. Even if you don't "thrive" (what does that mean anyway?) on a higher carb diet you have to consider that if you aren't giving your body the glycogen necessary to perform that your results are just going to be limited. That's my guess/opinion anyway.

how often do you lift weights? are you overtraining? perhaps you need more time between training days for recovery/rebuilding the muscle.

I'm training 3 times a week. I take a week off after a month.

Why do you take a week off? Scratch my comment on "deloading". If you are feeling really fatigued, achey joints, or anything go down to 50% or something, but if not then there's no need to just take an entire week off.

WHat type of program are you using? Stronglifts 5x5? and are you taking a full rest week each month or deloading?

I'm on SL5x5, I took a week off last month and deloaded twice.

Kora wrote:

WHat are you doing outside the program, activity wise? How accurate do you think your calorie count is? 4,000 cals a day for no weight gain is suspicious. Either you are miscalculating or I would consider a medical check if I were you. 4,000 cals at your size just doesn't sound right.

Nothing intense, I bike to work everyday for 30 minutes. I plugged in my meals from yesterday and I got around 3500 calories, a conservative estimate. I will consider a medical check once I have access next month.

Kora wrote:

How do you think your form is on lifts, newbies can limit gains by failing to learn proper form. With really good form you should be able to push to near failure without injury.

I got my form checked. I do have a muscle imbalance, but my form is correct as far as I know. I do everything in front of a mirror and pretty sure I'm doing it right.

Kora wrote:

And have you tried baby plating?

Not yet, I will try this next time. Thanks

Kora wrote:

Edit: Oh and seriously strength and muscle building is a long process. It takes time, you've only been at three months be patient. How long have you been "plateaued"?

Stuck on this weight for a month. I deloaded and worked back up to this weight and still am having trouble going over. Should I deload again? Or should I just stay on this weight and keep trying?

Justin Morgan wrote:

I followed stronglifts 5x5 and then mad cow 5x5 and got my squat up to 300 ibs x 5, dead lift up to 395x5, and my bench press to 245x5 in just a little over a year. And I had to do stuff to fix my squat several times during that year. So maybe it's a biomechanics issue, maybe you just aren't putting the right types of fuel in your body. Maybe you just need to deload like the SL5x5 program recommends.

Good job man. What kind of corrections did you have to make for your squat? I deloaded once before, should I deload again? Unless I'm being impatient.

Justin Morgan wrote:

You don't really know though what kind of diet you thrive on in terms of training if those are your lifts. I don't say that to be mean or anything, but you just haven't put your body under enough stress to make the kind of demands that will make you play with your diet that way. I'm not saying you have to follow 80/10/10, but if you are training hard enough to really elicit muscular growth and strength increases then you'll need to increase your body's glycogen levels. Even if you don't "thrive" (what does that mean anyway?) on a higher carb diet you have to consider that if you aren't giving your body the glycogen necessary to perform that your results are just going to be limited. That's my guess/opinion anyway.

That's true. I tried 80/10/10 before SL5x5, but I ended up feeling very tired and bloated for some reason. Do you recommend increasing carb?

The first thing I had to fix was the depth. I had to learn to squat well below parallel. I was good for a long time, and then when I got up to around 275x5 my knees were kind of buckling in, and that wasn't that long ago. So I asked some of the guy's in the powerlifting/strongman forum section for some tips and I posted a video and they pretty much took care of me. So now I'm squatting over 300x5.

As far as the carbs, I like 80/10/10 personally. But if that's not really your thing then you could do kind of a 60/20/20 type thing. That was what Steve Reeves (classic bodybuilder, and probably natural) followed. The American college of sports medicine recommends athletes follow something like 65/20/15 (carb/fat/pro). So something within those ranges seems to be pretty standard.

WHat type of program are you using? Stronglifts 5x5? and are you taking a full rest week each month or deloading?

I'm on SL5x5, I took a week off last month and deloaded twice.

Kora wrote:

WHat are you doing outside the program, activity wise? How accurate do you think your calorie count is? 4,000 cals a day for no weight gain is suspicious. Either you are miscalculating or I would consider a medical check if I were you. 4,000 cals at your size just doesn't sound right.

Nothing intense, I bike to work everyday for 30 minutes. I plugged in my meals from yesterday and I got around 3500 calories, a conservative estimate. I will consider a medical check once I have access next month.

Kora wrote:

How do you think your form is on lifts, newbies can limit gains by failing to learn proper form. With really good form you should be able to push to near failure without injury.

I got my form checked. I do have a muscle imbalance, but my form is correct as far as I know. I do everything in front of a mirror and pretty sure I'm doing it right.

Kora wrote:

And have you tried baby plating?

Not yet, I will try this next time. Thanks

Kora wrote:

Edit: Oh and seriously strength and muscle building is a long process. It takes time, you've only been at three months be patient. How long have you been "plateaued"?

Stuck on this weight for a month. I deloaded and worked back up to this weight and still am having trouble going over. Should I deload again? Or should I just stay on this weight and keep trying?

Justin Morgan wrote:

I followed stronglifts 5x5 and then mad cow 5x5 and got my squat up to 300 ibs x 5, dead lift up to 395x5, and my bench press to 245x5 in just a little over a year. And I had to do stuff to fix my squat several times during that year. So maybe it's a biomechanics issue, maybe you just aren't putting the right types of fuel in your body. Maybe you just need to deload like the SL5x5 program recommends.

Good job man. What kind of corrections did you have to make for your squat? I deloaded once before, should I deload again? Unless I'm being impatient.

Justin Morgan wrote:

You don't really know though what kind of diet you thrive on in terms of training if those are your lifts. I don't say that to be mean or anything, but you just haven't put your body under enough stress to make the kind of demands that will make you play with your diet that way. I'm not saying you have to follow 80/10/10, but if you are training hard enough to really elicit muscular growth and strength increases then you'll need to increase your body's glycogen levels. Even if you don't "thrive" (what does that mean anyway?) on a higher carb diet you have to consider that if you aren't giving your body the glycogen necessary to perform that your results are just going to be limited. That's my guess/opinion anyway.

That's true. I tried 80/10/10 before SL5x5, but I ended up feeling very tired and bloated for some reason. Do you recommend increasing carb?

You might actually being deloading to much and it's hindering your gains. I personally even, when I use to powerlift only deloaded 1 week every 3 months. I would say wait and deload only on weeks when you feel burned out or overly taxed.

If I were you I would get a medical check up to. That's a high amount of calories for someone at your weight. Doesn't necessarily mean there is a problem, sometimes it can indicate one. If your metabolism runs that high naturally. Then I would say you are a hard gainer. Which means you will probably have a harder time gaining muscle and or strength then the average joe. If that's the case you might find you respond better to different type of programming like westside 4 skinny bastards, or any other harder gainer routine. I assume you have trouble putting on muscle size? Do you know?

Also try the baby plating first. Sometimes those smaller increase can help work you through sticking points. Which maybe all this. It's not uncommon.

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